High Court strikes down Haryana’s 75% quota for locals in private sector as ‘unconstitutional’

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday quashed the Haryana government’s 2020 law making it mandatory for private sector companies to reserve 75 per cent of the jobs for locals as unconstitutional.

A bench comprising Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Harpreet Kaur Jeewan allowed a batch of petitions challenging the Haryana government’s law to provide 75 per cent reservation in private sector jobs to locals. “The law (the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020) is unconstitutional and violative of the part-III of the Constitution,” the bench said.

The primary issues that the court dealt with while hearing the petitions included whether the state has legislative competence to pass the Act in light of Article 35 r/w Entry 81 of List 1 of the Seventh Schedule and also if the state can implement reservation policy in the private sphere.

The court also decided on whether the Act passed by the Haryana government amounted to reasonable restriction and whether the writ petitions were maintainable. The court’s order came in favour of the petitioners on all four issues. A detailed order, however, is awaited.

Introduced in the Haryana Assembly in 2020, the Act attributed the “significant impact” on local infrastructure and housing leading to the proliferation of slums, besides health and environmental issues to “the influx of a large population of migrants competing for low-paid jobs”. Giving preference to local candidates in low-paid jobs, it said, “is socially, economically and environmentally desirable and in the interests of the general public.”

The petitioners argued that the Act amounted to an “unprecedented intrusion” by the government into the fundamental rights of private employers to carry out their business and trade, as provided under Article 19. They said the restrictions on their right were “arbitrary, capricious, excessive and uncalled for”.

The petitioner further argued that the Act stood contrary to the principles of justice, equality, liberty, and fraternity laid down in the Preamble of the Constitution. They said that the Act represents a “serious assault on the unity and integrity of the country and the idea of a common Indian identity”.